3 Facts Most Agents Don’t Know About Millennials

"Coaching changed my business and my life."

A few days ago, Prudential Real Estate released the results of a survey they did on home ownership. In a nutshell, here’s what the survey discovered:

Of all generations, Millennials and Generation X place the highest value on homeownership at 77% and 78% respectively expressing that home ownership is “very important” to them.

There are a lot of people contemplating real estate right now due to historic low interest rates and prices in many markets well off their highs of just a few years ago.

There appears to be pent-up demand and cautious optimism among younger generations.

If you’ve been following along, these results parallel with what I’ve been sharing with you over the last couple of years. The next housing boom will, in large part be driven by the Millennial Generation. Between the Millennial Generation (~84 million in size) and Generation X (~40 million in size), you have nearly 124 million people who may be making serious moves in real estate in the coming years in the US.

I can’t over-stress how important it is to understand this.

Unfortunately, many brokers and agents express concern over their readiness to deal with the shift in demographics. I want to offer a few suggestions for you to be thinking about:

1. The shift in demographics also means a shift in housing needs.

There are so many factors that go into this and, if you’ve heard me speak on this, you know what a lot of them are. I won’t go into detail in this post but, suffice it to say, the Millennial Generation does not want the same type of housing as their parents’ generation did.

The needs of the Baby Boomers and the Millennials are changing and they are pushing toward much more urbanized areas. If you’re not positioning your business to handle this shift, you’re going to risk getting left behind as the trends shift.

2. There is a 2-3 decade age gap between the average agent and the average first-time homebuyer.

Put bluntly, this sucks and it’s a problem for the industry. Many of our coaching clients are working feverishly to close this gap through new recruiting methods because it gives them a huge advantage over the competition in their marketplace.

If you’re a broker, it’s time to take a serious look at what you’re doing to recruit younger agents into your office(s). This is the hottest topic right now for many brokerages and the biggest challenge/opportunity they face.

If you’re an experienced agent, it’s time to look at what your strategies will be for connecting with, communicating with and marketing to the Millennial Generation and Gen X. “Facebook” is not a strategy. What are you doing to build trust with your prospective clients in those generations? What are some ways you can leverage your experience to help them?

If you’re a younger agent, the future of your business is going to be found in your sphere of influence (SOI). Yes, “txt msg is tots gr8” but it takes more than 140-160 characters to build real relationships based on trust. What can you learn from the experienced agents about that? I suggest you ask them.

3. Your success is still wrapped up in your ability to communicate your value.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it 1,000 times – real estate professionals are no longer the gatekeepers of the information. That may be true, but that was never really the biggest value proposition for good agents anyway.

Knowing how to communicate your value to a generation of people who will probably call YOU with new listings is going to be critical. Besides being able to run a search in the MLS, you’ve got to be able to tell them what you can do for them. Why should they choose you over other agents in your market?

Everyone will say they have an answer to this question of value, but trust me…they don’t. Those who do are going to continue to be the ones who dominate in the years to come.